JEWS DON’T BELIEVE IN JESUS BUT IN THE COMMERCE THE TRAIL BRINGS THEM…

NAZARETH, Israel – Strains of “Silent Night” stream from the tour bus speakers on what has become known as the Jesus circuit in Nazareth, northern Israel.

Locals here joke that the carols constitute a whole new category of music in the largely Palestinian city, but the bigger joke, they claim, is making money selling Americans their own Christmas music.

“There have always been Christians who come to the Holy Land. But in recent years they come in huge groups, in tour bus caravans, in the thousands!” said Ibrihim Mansouf, a local shop owner in Nazareth. “They want to buy anything, anything that was made in the Holy Land.”

Of the 3.5 million tourists that visit Israel each year, 2.4 million travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories for “Christian Tourism” according to the Israeli Tourism Ministry.